Eagles Rookie Linebacker Emerging From Large Shadow Of Jihaad Campbell

Mondon made back-to-back plays that stood out on Cleveland’s first possession of the second half. The first was him getting off a block to stop Pierre Strong after just two yards.

On the next play, on a third-and-six, the Browns appeared to have a screen pass set up nicely for Strong. Except Mondon sniffed it out and made a nice tackle, wrapping up Strong’s legs and dropping him on the spot for a one-yard loss.

“That was more just playing ball,” said Mondon. “It wasn’t too much to dive into, it was just, ‘Go make a play.’”

The tackle in the run game, after beating a blocker, is something he was more pleased with, because block destruction is something he has been working on since arriving as a fifth-round pick.

“When you get to the NFL, the linemen are a lot better than in college, so being able to get off blocks and not getting pad on pad, trying to get that separation,” he said.

He did that on the run stop. He and assistant linebackers coach Ronell Williams have been working on techniques to beat blocks.

“That was just kind of something that coach Ronell has been preaching to me, being able to use my tools to make plays, just using the tools I have,” he said.

They are tools that should make Mondon a key player either as a starter or reserve at some point on this team. It is a young linebacker room, however, and the tale of Nakobe Dean has yet to be written as he continues to rehab from a patellar tendon tear.

However, the tale of Dean probably ends with him not being re-signed after this season because the Eagles have Zack Baun, Campbell, Jeremiah Trotter, and Mondon, among other talented linebackers who will probably join the practice squad, such as Lance Dixon.